NULA rifles

AKredneck63

Lil-Rokslider
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Oct 17, 2021
Messages
201
Ok, so does anyone know the story behind Outkast Arms?

I assume it is some of Melvin's old employees???
Glenn. Melvins old head machinist bought up his tools/shop/etc to keep up maintaining CLR/Forbes/ULA/NULA. Nice guy for sure he’s bout to do a rebarrel/chamber for me on one
 

t_carlson

WKR
Joined
Nov 1, 2022
Messages
593
Location
Montana
Glenn. Melvins old head machinist bought up his tools/shop/etc to keep up maintaining CLR/Forbes/ULA/NULA. Nice guy for sure he’s bout to do a rebarrel/chamber for me on one

Good to know. I have two CLRs sitting in the safe that I never got sent to Melvin before he retired.
 

Boonie327

FNG
Joined
Dec 27, 2019
Messages
63
Location
WV
I had Glenn/OutKast chop, thread and cerakote a 700 .243. They also made a spacer to increase the LOP of the stockys vg that it’s in and put some foam in the stock to deaden it a little. Richard is the stock guy and worked for Melvin too. They do great work. I’m going to have them stock a .280 700 for me some time.
 

wyosteve

WKR
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
2,215
I’ll second the Strata. I found a beautiful.300 WM Strata at a gun show last weekend and it would have come home with me if I didn’t already own 2 of them. I have the sellers number if interested.
 
OP
JBirthisel
Joined
Dec 2, 2021
Messages
80
I’ll second the Strata. I found a beautiful.300 WM Strata at a gun show last weekend and it would have come home with me if I didn’t already own 2 of them. I have the sellers number if interested.

Was it the gun show in Casper? I knew I should have went!


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Joined
Dec 2, 2017
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Northeast Pa
20B are somewhere between the CLR and the NULA's. The CLR weak point was only the crappy stock they used. The 20B had a much nicer stock. I have a CLR in 300mag I will get restocked at some point. The very early CLR in 270 and 3006 has some issues with the trigger and safety but they got it ironed out and the 7mag and 300mag came later in the production cycle so were not affected. The 20B is an al-right rifle though not quite the same as the NULA in the stock build or the full length bedding.
 
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BTW, the ULA or the NULA has nothing over a more modern CA Ridgeline FFT TI. Not in weight, how it carries, how it handles or in accuracy. You can get one chambered in many cartridges choices and you don't have to buy a used one...and they run for about $3400. Yeah, I know.....Melvin has a great reputation and I love the guy too. He was an awesome rifle builder..one of a kind. But, those days are over and many new contenders have arrived with better builds (lots of old ones too). I wouldn't get hung up on one.
 

Roadrunner1

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 3, 2024
Messages
153
I never owned any of Melvin's rifles but I do have Remington 700 Mountain rifles which with scope weigh 6.5 lbs and will shoot under .5 inch. Another question is how much better are NULA, ULA OR Forbes? Thanks
 

Jrkotz

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 1, 2016
Messages
232
BTW, the ULA or the NULA has nothing over a more modern CA Ridgeline FFT TI. Not in weight, how it carries, how it handles or in accuracy. You can get one chambered in many cartridges choices and you don't have to buy a used one...and they run for about $3400. Yeah, I know.....Melvin has a great reputation and I love the guy too. He was an awesome rifle builder..one of a kind. But, those days are over and many new contenders have arrived with better builds (lots of old ones too). I wouldn't get hung up on one.
I'll second this. Melvin was way ahead of his time in the 80s and 90s, but for the price they fetch these days, there's many other options to consider that do the same job or better.

I've owned two ULAs, a CLR redone by Melvin, a fieldcraft, and a Forbes. All very nice rifles, but they all got sold off and replaced over the years except for the fieldcraft. Nothing bad to say about them except I've found that I don't prefer blind mags, and I've found different stock geometry that I shoot better.

Good luck on your search, we're in a golden age of custom and factory rifle options.
 
Last edited:
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Wyoming
BTW, the ULA or the NULA has nothing over a more modern CA Ridgeline FFT TI. Not in weight, how it carries, how it handles or in accuracy. You can get one chambered in many cartridges choices and you don't have to buy a used one...and they run for about $3400.
I agree that modern rifles are spectacular, and many will perform as well or better than a NULA. Christensen Arms, however, isn't in that elite group. Sorry.
 
OP
JBirthisel
Joined
Dec 2, 2021
Messages
80
I told Glenn I wanted a modern spin on Melvin’s stripped camo when they did my clr. Super happy with how it turned out. Really debating on having it rebarreled though to something like 6.5prc as 1-10 twist 7mag is fairly stout recoil for the performance you get.
View attachment 663192

Now that’s a beautiful stock! Modern and classic


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Boonie327

FNG
Joined
Dec 27, 2019
Messages
63
Location
WV
The stocks on the Forbes rifles were made by Melvin and his crew in Granville. Before the wheels feel off, the majority of them were stocked and bedded by the NULA guys, so I don’t think those were the issue. The issue with some of the Forbes rifles came later on and was with machine work and quality. The Bulldog barrels weren’t great and pretty rough at times and it’s worth upgrading them to Douglas or your preferred barrel if it’s not shooting the way you think it should be.
 

thinhorn_AK

"DADDY"
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I never owned any of Melvin's rifles but I do have Remington 700 Mountain rifles which with scope weigh 6.5 lbs and will shoot under .5 inch. Another question is how much better are NULA, ULA OR Forbes? Thanks
Just a totally different thing. The nulas had scaled down actions like a Kimber or something rather than a lightened version of an existing action if that makes sense. The stocks were also basically individually made for each action/barrel.

Remington mountain rifles are nice but I believe they more or less just put a lighter barrel on a normal 700 action then put it in a bell and Carlson stock.
 
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